As part of the "Capability Program" of Bookbridge (www.bookbridge.org) our team has set up a Learning Center in Ang Tasom (Cambodia) as a social business in the last months.

Ang Tasom, where the Learning Center is located, is a small city about 2 hours from Phnom Penh in a rural area. Most people are working in the agricultural sector, in particular rice growing. We identified that access to quality education is limited. Therefore, the idea of the Learning Center is to bring quality eduction to people, in particular children and youth. The Learning Center has a library, an IT room and two class rooms and offers:

- Regular activities for kids and youth
- English and IT courses
- Kindergarden
- Seminars tailored to local needs (eg. in agricultural matters)

On 29th November 2013 the Learning Center was opened with a big support of the local authorities and people. The center is quite far advanced with an initial start up fund we got from Bookbridge. However, there is lot more what we can do and there is a lot more room for budget for that which will help to make this even a better place for education, fun and happy faces. 

There is a lack of toys, furniture and an area outside of the building to make this a pleasant place for the kids and their families. In particular we would like to 

1) obtain toys with a good quality (eg. wood) since the toys we have now are mostly out of plastic and partially broken
2) obtain games
3) buy furniture
4) build a playground outside of the learning center

We offer a free library with about 10'000 books; however, the choice of books in the local language Khmer is quite limited. Therefore we would also like to buy additional Khmer books, like

5) childrens' story books
6) educational books, like atlas of Cambodia

It would be great if you would support our project. Your small contribution will make a big impact to the children in Ang Tasom! Each Dollar, Euro or Swiss Franc spent will go directly into the projects 1) - 6) mentioned above. Absolutely no overhead or management cost will be covered through your donation!

Olivier Kaeser (olivier.kaeser@me.com) is responsible for the implementation of the above mentioned objectives. He will stay in Cambodia until April 2014 in the framework of a Swiss Civilian Service appointment.

We and the children of Ang Tasom thank you very much for your kind donation!
Bookbridge team & Capability Program (Barbara Kaech, Olivier Kaeser, Nathan Evans, Jonathan Baumann, Dennis Lengacher, Jella Riesterer, Heike Rudolf von Rohr)